versity of New York and currently teaches as a
Distinguished Professor of Photography.
SaraMarionSeealso: History of Photography: Postwar Era;
History of Photography: Twentieth-Century Pio-
neers; Street Photography; Weems, Carrie Mae;
Works Progress Administration
Biography
Born in New York City, New York 1919. Attended Cooper
Union School of Art, 1938–1940; Harlem Community Art
Center, 1940–1942. Worked as sign painter and display
artist, New York, 1936–1937; Technical draftsman, New
York 1939–1942; Commercial artist and illustrator, 1944–
1958; Freelance Photographer, New York, 1959–1968,
1975 to present; Adjunct Professor of Photography at
Cooper Union Institute, New York, 1969–1972; Associate
Professor of Art, Cooper Union Institute, 1975–1978;
Professor of Art at Hunter College of the City University
of New York, New York, 1975–1988; Distinguished Pro-
fessor of Art at Hunter College, City University of New
York, 1988 to present. Awarded John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Fellowship 1952–1953; Benin Creative Photo-
graphy Award, 1972; Artistic and Cultural Achievement
Award, Community Museum of Brooklyn, New York,
1979; American Society for Magazine Photographers,
1983; Distinguished Career Photography Award, Friends
of Photography, 1991; Special Citation for Photographic
Journalism, American Society of Magazine Photogra-
phers, 1991. Honorary Doctorates from Rhode Island
Institute of Fine Arts, 1985; Maryland Institute, 1986;
Wesleyan University, 1992. Established The DeCarava
Archives and The DeCarava Foundation, New York.
Individual Exhibitions
1947 Roy DeCarava; Serigraph Galleries, New York, New York
1950 Forty-Fourth Street Gallery; New York, New York
1951 Countee Cullen Branch; The New York Public Lib-
rary, New York, New York
1954 People of Harlem; The Little Gallery, Hudson Park Branch,
The New York Public Library, New York, New York
1956 Camera Club of New York; New York, New York
1969 Through Black Eyes: Photographs by Roy DeCarava;
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York
1970 Roy DeCarava, Photographer; Sheldon Memorial Art
Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
1975 Roy DeCarava: Photographs; Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston, Texas
1976 The Nation’s Capital in Photographs, 1976: Roy De-
Carava; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1981 Roy DeCarava, Photographs; Friends of Photography,
Carmel, California
1985 The Sound I Saw: The Jazz Photographs of Roy DeCar-
ava; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York
1987 Roy DeCarava: Between Time; Museum of Photogra-
phic Arts, San Diego, California
1988 Roy DeCarava; The Photographers’ Gallery, London,
England
Fotografier av A ̊rstider Roy DeCarava; Fotografiska
Museet in Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Black Photography in America: Roy DeCarava, ‘‘To
Paris’’; Pavillon des Arts, Paris, France
1990 Roy DeCarava: Recent Photographs; Witkin Gallery,
New York, New York
1996 Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective; Museum of Modern
Art, New York, New YorkGroup Exhibitions
1953 Always the Young Stranger; Museum of Modern Art,
New York, New York
1955 The Family of Man; Museum of Modern Art, New
York, New York, and traveling
1956 Five Photographers: Harry Callahan, Roy DeCarava,
Scott Hyde, Leon Levinstein, and Victor Obsatz;A
Photographer’s Gallery, New York, New York
1959 Photography in the Fine Arts; Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, New York
1964 Photographs by the Kamoinge Workshop; Kamoinge
Workshop Gallery, New York, New York
The Photographer’s Eye; Museum of Modern Art,
New York, New York
An Exhibition of Work by the John Simon Guggenheim
Fellows of Photography; Philadelphia College of Art,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1967 Photography in the Twentieth Century; George East-
man House, Rochester, New York
1974 Photography in America; Whitney Museum of Amer-
ican Art, New York, New York
1980 Photography of the Fifties: An American Perspective;
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona,
Tucson, Arizona
1983 A Century of Black Photographers, 1840–1960; Mu-
seum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Provi-
dence, Rhode Island, and traveling
1990 Photography Until Now; Museum of Modern Art, New
York, New York
1994 American Photography 1890–1965 from the Museum of
Modern Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
2001 Open City: Street Photographs, 1950–2000; Museum
of Modern Art, Oxford, United KingdomSelected Works
Graduation, 1949
Man Coming Up Subway Stairs, 1952
David, 1952
Woman and Children at Intersection, 1952
Sun and Shade, 1952
Hallway, 1953
White Line, 1960
Coltrane on Soprano, 1963
Three Men With Hand Trucks, 1963
Mississippi Freedom Marcher, Washington, D.C., 1963
Pepsi, 1963
Boy, Man and Graffiti, 1966
Curtains and Light, 1987Further Reading
Blue, Caroll. Conversations with Roy DeCarava. Narrator
Alex Haley. New York: The Television Laboratory at
WNET Thirteen, distributed by First Run Features,
1984, vhs, col and b/w, ½ in., 28 min.DECARAVA, ROY